LAS VEGAS - LandingZone launched a new dock for the MacBook Pro with Retina Display this week at CES. The device clamps on to your MacBook Pro giving you a wide variety of ports that can always be plugged in, even when you take your laptop on the go. It includes five USB ports (three 3.0 and two 2.0), an HDMI port for an external display, a Mini DisplayPort for Thunderbolt displays and external peripherals, and a security slot for third party locks. It also has a built-in Ethernet adapter that passes through to USB giving you an easy way to plug into a wired network. Similarly, it has a headphone jack that does the heavy lifting of passing the sound through USB for you. The device is priced at US$229 [corrected], but the company has it on sale right now for $199.

This looks really awesome, but I’m very confused by the product description. On the company’s website, it shows the output port on the dock as “Mini DisplayPort,” which we’ve seen in similar docks. It’s compatible with the Thunderbolt port on new Macs (as Thunderbolt passes DisplayPort video and audio), but DisplayPort won’t pass Thunderbolt data for storage peripherals. You’d need a Thunderbolt controller on the dock to do that, and most products like this don’t include one to save on costs.

So it’s odd that the website’s diagram clearly shows Thunderbolt hard drives attached to the port, but the port itself is labeled “Mini DisplayPort.” Any clarification on this, Bryan?

It’s not, it acts more like a docking station. So you leave the device on your desk, with your desktop monitor, keyboard and mouse, and storage devices all plugged in, and then when you get home you “dock” your MacBook to the device. So this is something that’s meant to stay on your desk.